In induction hobs it is technically already possible per se to use an induction heating coil to detect the presence of a pan above the induction heating coil or on a cooking zone defined by the induction heating coil, as long as the pan per se is at all suitable for inductive heating. However, in modern induction hobs, as corresponding to EP 2670211 A2, it is now possible to use a multiplicity of distributed induction heating coils to cook not only always with precisely one pan on precisely one cooking zone with precisely one induction heating coil. For this purpose, a multitude of significantly smaller induction heating coils are provided, for example five or seven of which then together form, as it were, a cooking zone for a pan and heat the pan given correspondingly sufficient coverage by said pan. However, since it is desired to be able to place the pans at any desired location on such an induction hob, it may, under certain circumstances, not be sufficient, given adjacent induction heating coils, to define said heating coils, as it were, as a heating zone which is to be operated jointly and then apply said heating coils with a common identical power level on the basis of the fact that it has been detected that a pan has been placed on them. For this reason, EP 2670211 A2 proposes providing additional sensors for detecting a pan and at the same time arranging a large number thereof distributed on the induction hob.